Ár Ré leadership election, 4124
A leadership election for Ár Ré was held from January to July of 4124 to elect a successor to outgoing leader Tauren Ó Marcaigh. A total of 99,530 ballots were cast in the initial election and 99,821 in the re-run of the second round. Minato Monata won the final ballot and succeeded Marcaigh to become Leader of Ár Ré. Background Marcaigh was known for her controversial and potentially divisive pro-Kilani politics, which initially divided the party shortly before the 4120 election, costing them their worst defeat in the polls to date. Backlash against her became so intense that it precipitated a leadership challenge against her, which she won. Marcaigh thus sought to rebrand herself and her party by realigning in the centre ground. In the subsequent 4123 elections, Ár Ré gained 83 seats and her personal popularity soared. However, Marcaigh felt that she was no longer fit to lead the party, especially when her beliefs differed so greatly from what the general membership wanted. As a result just one year after winning the election, on January 11, 4124, Marcaigh resigned as Leader of Ár Ré, triggering the party's third leadership election in ten years. She continued to serve as Ár Ré's presidential candidate for the 4126 elections before withdrawing her candidacy thereafter. Procedure The 4124 leadership election was held one year before the next constitutional review by the party was to take place, hence the elections adhered with the same rules used during the 4116 and 4120 elections. The IEC set out the nomination period to be from January 12 to January 31. As only three candidates had registered with the IEC by the deadline, the campaigning period was fixed at two months, ending on April 30. Ballots would be sent out from April 1 to April 15 and returned to Headquarters from April 15 to April 29. The final result was announced on April 30. Candidates Campaign Recount and election rerun The results announced on April 31 resulted in the two top candidates, McConaughey and Monata, scoring within 0.08% of the vote of each other. Although McConaughey initially said that she had accepted the result, her campaign filed a challenge against the Internal Elections Committee on May 3, claiming election irregularities were present which could have distorted the final result. An internal investigation was launched and found that 1,323 votes had not followed the correct electoral procedure - as this was greater than the 78 votes separating the two candidates, the initial results of the second round were annulled, and a rerun of the second round of the election was called. Ballots for the second round only would be sent out from July 1 to July 15, recollected from July 16 to July 29, and the results announced on July 30. Mario Lugazza, the third-place candidate who was eliminated in the first round, challenged the IEC to hold a re-run of the first round as well, alleging that his votes had also been miscounted. However, the IEC threw out this claim on the ground that the 1,323 invalidated votes would not have been sufficient to alter his vote total, and that he would still have been eliminated. Results The results of the initial second round resulted in a difference of only 72 votes seperating Monata and McConaughey. Election irregularities resulted in the results of the initial second round which affected 1,323 votes - the result was annulled and a re-run was held two months later, which widened the gap between the two candidates. In both rounds and the annulled second round, Monata won the majority of votes.